Difficult Friendships
by Anteyra
Summary: Malcolm and a member of his security team are always arguing.... how will they cope when they have to go on an away mission together? CHAP 5 UP! COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

Friendships… it's an odd word to say the least…. Split the word in half and you get "fry end". There are also different types of friendships.

One type is when you are best friends. You have lots in common and are always having a laugh, sharing deepest thoughts and secrets, like the friendship between Lieutenant Malcolm Reed and Commander Charles Tucker.

The other is the complete opposite and most of the time it's arguing. And that's exactly the type of 'friendship' that Malcolm had with Crewman Evelyn Jacobs.

No matter what everyday there was some sort of argument between the two, whether it was about film night, the food, or even how the security officers were supposed to train. Of course the fact that Evelyn was a member of Malcolm's security force didn't help at all. It was very unusual to find them agreeing to anything at all. Their personalities were entirely different. The only thing in common the two of them had was that they were both from England.

So naturally when the rest of the Armoury crew knew that a storm was brewing between the two officers they knew better than to hang around, and always made an excuse that it was the end of their shift, or meal time, or something they had to fix elsewhere on the ship. They wanted to be as far away from the quarrelling pair as possible.

Once or twice their arguments have even evolved into a full out brawl usually resulting in a couple of days confinement, and Captain Archer not being pleased with them. And normally there were broken bones to go with the confinement, usually with Malcolm having Phlox tend to him.

Commander Tucker had once tried to get Evelyn to be 'nicer' with Malcolm and to try and stop the arguments, but her temperament on that occasion had the worst of consequences. She was suspended from duty for three weeks for having punched the chief engineer when she was aiming for Reed. He was then in sickbay for a couple of days with pretty sever concussion and a broken rib. Malcolm was only given a dislocated retina.

-&-&-&-&-&-

Down in the Armoury, Evelyn was getting ready to end her shift. It had been a hard day for her and she was beginning to get sleepy. She began to pack away all the phase rifles that she had tested and was about to shut the locker when Malcolm entered. She had managed to avoid him all day and now, at the end of her shift, here he was. It was time for her to think of a something to argue about. But nothing came to mind.

She watched as Malcolm moved over to her. "Good afternoon Crewman."

Evelyn nodded slightly and closed the locker with a bit of a hard shove causing it to slam. "Lieutenant."

Malcolm folded his arms in front of him knowing what was going to come next. The rest of the crew in the Armoury looked at the pair and quickly headed for the exit, eager to get out of the way of the daily argument.

"Captain Archer wants you on the bridge."

Evelyn's voice suddenly rose. "What? I haven't done anything for crying out loud!" the only times the captain had ever wanted to speak to Evelyn was about the fights.

Malcolm quickly interrupted before she began to throw punches around. "I know." He said calmly and just stayed still watching the crewman.

"Well…" she began to stutter "What does he want me for?"

Malcolm smiled. "If you go to him you'll find out."

Evelyn looked at Malcolm and quickly left. He quickly followed after her, jumping into the turbolift before the doors closed on him.

-&-&-&-&-&-

Evelyn was ready to hit the roof!

"No way!" She shouted at Archer in front of the rest of the crew.

"Why not?" He asked back.

"Because I'll punch the living daylights of him if the two of us are stuck in a pod!" She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I won't do it!"

It was Archer's turn to raise his voice. "I'm giving you an order crewman! Or do you want to be confined to quarters, or thrown out of Starfleet?"

At hearing Archer's threats she didn't say anything. Behind her she could tell that Malcolm was smiling broadly. She just knew it. And indeed he was. In fact Archer was finding it very difficult not to smile at the young officer's actions.

Evelyn had worked very hard to get where she was. Her father and mother had been very proud the day she decided to join Starfleet. And there was one piece of advice that had stuck in her mind, a piece of advice from her mother 'Never get into any fights with superior officers.' Well, that hadn't helped at all. She was naturally a fairly aggressive young woman and there was nothing she enjoyed more than an argument or a fight. Some of the crew even thought she was a Tellerite.

"Well?" Archer asked. Watching Evelyn carefully.

She sighed and unfolded her arms "All right. I'll go." She replied. Loosing sleep was much better than loosing her place in Starfleet.

"Get ready then."

Evelyn nodded and left the bridge. Once she had gone Archer smiled and relaxed. He was lucky she hadn't tried to lash out at him.

Archer moved over to Reed. "You will be taking a phase pistol with you won't you?"

"Of course sir. I'll keep it set on Kill." The two men had a little laugh together.

Malcolm soon left the bridge and made his way to the launch bay where Evelyn was getting the shuttlepod ready for their mission.

She stepped inside the pod carrying a couple of silver foil cased ration packs. Malcolm's head popped in through the hatch and he watched her put them into the storage bins.

"What are you doing?"

Evelyn turned in surprise at hearing his voice. "Packing ration packs."

"We won't need them." Malcolm stepped in, moved over to the storage bin and began taking the packs out.

"Sir!" Evelyn immediately began to protest "Regulation 23A of shuttlepod travel states that there should always be ration packs in the storage bins."

Malcolm laughed slightly. "We're not going to be hundreds of kilometres away from Enterprise. If there's trouble they can just use the grapplers or the transporter to get us back."

"Lieutenant! We should have those ration packs!" She quickly grabbed them off Reed and stuffed them back into the storage bin. Malcolm did his best to grab them back off her but she was far too quick for him. Grabbing the lid she quickly placed it over the bin and sat ontop to prevent Malcolm from going anywhere near them. "They're staying put." She stated sternly.

"All right." Malcolm sighed. He was not in the mood to have a fight with her today.

Their mission was simple. The ship had found an asteroid which had dilithium in it and so Evelyn and Malcolm were to go and dig up the dilithium. A simple task that even two cadets would be able to do, but seeing as the task involved in detonating a couple of charges the chief of security was best for the job, and Evelyn had always wanted to go walking on an asteroid.


	2. Chapter 2

After a few more minutes of checks to make sure the pod was safe and ready to use, the launch bay doors were opened and the arm holding the pod was dropped. Once it was out and released, the pod spun around and headed for the surface of the asteroid.

For an asteroid it was quite a large one, about 150km in diameter and 250Km in length, and so it was very easy to detect on the ship's long range sensors.

"You're being very quiet today Jacobs." Malcolm commented with a little bit of a smile as he adjusted co-ordinates and headed for a different area of the asteroid to land on.

Evelyn looked up and over at Malcolm. She was still sitting on top of the storage bin where the ration packs were stored. "I'm just tired. My shift should've ended when I had to go the bridge."

All Malcolm could was laugh slightly. Behind his back Evelyn glared at him. A few minutes later and Malcolm gently landed the pod on a flatish surface.

"Ok." Malcolm started as he got out of the pilot's seat and headed towards the back of the pod. "Let's get the EV suits on." He was fairly surprised at how quiet Evelyn was being today, but he had an inkling that she was building up to a big argument.

They got changed into their EV suits and opened the shuttlepod hatch. They stepped out and began to walk around the surface of the asteroid, scanners and tool box in hands.

"This is the area with the highest concentration of dilithium." Jacobs said. They were about 100 metres from the pod now, and the area they were in was far too rocky for the pod to land in.

"Let's start setting the charges then." Malcolm replied as he placed his toolbox on the ground.

Evelyn continued to walk around, looking for the best place to set the charges down. But no matter what, the scanner was finding it hard to pinpoint where the dilithium was and how deep in the rock it was.

Malcolm watched as she continued to slowly walk around. "Something wrong?"

"I'm not sure." She sighed. "But something just doesn't look right about these readings."

Malcolm put down the charges in his hand and moved over to Evelyn, looking over her shoulder he looked at the readings.

"There's probably some sort of isotope that interfering with the scanners. There wasn't any problem back on the ship." He began to move away and back to where he had put his toolbox.

Evelyn's face began to get even more puzzled when her scanner began to bleep. "Err… Lieutenant!"

Malcolm sighed and turned to face the young crewman. "What is it now?"

"Did Enterprise pick up any biosigns?"

"No… why?"

"Because I have. I'm reading 4 bio signs about 40 meters away!"

Malcolm returned to stand next to Evelyn. He took his own scanner out and checked it. Exactly the same readings.

"Now tell me that it's some sort of isotope that's interfering with the scanners giving us exactly the same readings."

Malcolm looked at her in annoyance and she just smiled at him.

Jacobs looked around her to see if she could see the bio-signs she was picking up. In one direction she could see Enterprise, following side by side with the asteroid, she turned the other side and froze in place.

Malcolm looked up from his scanner and at Evelyn's face. "What's wrong Crewman?"

But before Evelyn could give a response a discharge from a weapon hit the ground close to where the pair of them stood.

"Quickly back to the pod!" Malcolm shouted as they turned and ran as fast as they could, grabbing Evelyn's arm to get her moving. The lifeforms continued to fire at the two security officers until they both fell on the ground, unconscious, side by side. They had only managed to get a few meters back to the pod before they were hit.

-&-&-&-&-&-

On the bridge Captain Archer walked on from his ready room and headed over towards Hoshi's desk.

"What's wrong Hoshi?"

Hoshi didn't take her eyes of her console as she gave her answer. "I detected weapons fire on the surface of the asteroid. About 100 meters from the pod."

"It was probably just Malcolm and Jacobs setting off the charges." Archer replied, knowing how Hoshi got in sticky situations.

"It wasn't the charges sir. I also detected bio signs, other than Lieutenant Reed's and Crewman Jacobs."

Archer thought for a second. "Hail them."

Hoshi shook her head. "I tried to sir when I first detected the weapons fire. No response from either of them."

A voice from behind Hoshi rang out. "I have lost Lieutenant Reed and Crewman Jacobs."

Archer turned and faced T'Pol with a puzzled expression on his face. "What do you mean?"

"They are no longer on the surface of the asteroid." The Vulcan science officer replied calmly.

Archer was now very worried. It was now certainly looking as if there were aliens living on this asteroid and Evelyn and Malcolm had stumbled into them.

-&-&-&-&-&-

Malcolm was first to regain consciousness. He looked around him and all he could see was rock. He also noted that he was no longer in his EV suit, but in regular uniform. He tried to move his arm to rub his head but found they were anchored down. Anchored down by the fact he hand been tied back to back with Crewman Jacobs.

"Jacobs?" He called quietly, but he got no response. She was still unconscious. "Jacobs!" He said, this time a little a louder with a bit of a shunt. He was rewarded by the noise of a grunt behind him. "Jacobs, can you hear me?" He did his best to look over his shoulder, but it wasn't easy and so gave up, looking back at the wall in front of him.

"We're inside the asteroid."

Malcolm nodded his head. "Are you all right?"

"I've been shot! Of course I'm not all right!" She shouted back at him, nudging him sharply in his back with her elbow, causing him to yelp in pain slightly.

"Keep your voice down. You should have fired back at them."

"I didn't have a weapon cause I was told there was no need for one!"

"Regulation 7B of all away missions…" Malcolm started before he was rudely interrupted by Evelyn's voice.

"Oh don't give me that! Why didn't you fire back?" She asked. Malcolm said nothing. "Because you didn't have a phase pistol either." She replied to her own question. "Next time, don't blame me when you also didn't do anything!"

"You shouldn't warned me earlier that we had visitors!"

"I warned you as soon as I knew, Lieutenant!" she nudged him sharply again seeing as that was the only pain she could give him in her position. This time, Malcolm retaliated by nudging sharply back at her, and very quickly a nudging war started out between the two of them.

Evelyn's shouts had caused their captors to come over and investigate the noise. When the two security officers saw who it was they both froze in position and sighed heavily.

It was an unmistakable alien that they knew very well. Pointed ears, a 'V' ridge on their foreheads, slight greenish tint to their skin.

"Romulans." Malcolm and Evelyn sighed in unison and rested their heads against each other. Possibly the worst aliens that could be their captors.


	3. Chapter 3

Smiling at the two captives, the Romulan turned and left them alone. He had heard most of their argument before appearing to them.

"Are you able to get your hand free?" Malcolm asked as he began to wriggle his hands around, trying to loosen the rope, after a few seconds Evelyn began giggling, at first it was quiet but it soon grew more into intense laughing. "This is no laughing matter crewman!"

"I know sir." Evelyn replied through her laughs and deep breaths. "But you're tickling my back!"

Malcolm stopped moving his hands and shifted awkwardly at what she had just said. The laughing quickly died down. Evelyn cleared her throat and looked around the cave they were in. "This is all your fault Lieutenant." She said suddenly.

Malcolm's face was a picture of shock. "My fault?" Malcolm cried out in surprise to what his comrade had just said.

"You're the one that put Captain Archer up to allow me on this mission with you… as payback for last week!" Evelyn replied in a very accusing tone. Last week Evelyn had managed to get Malcolm sent to the brig for once for punching her due to one of their arguments.

Malcolm was quick to retaliate. "That's absurd! I would never do a thing like that… however you would."

Evelyn was now getting angry, and if it wasn't for the fact she was tied up she would've hit Malcolm hard in the face. "Whose fault is it for not bringing phase pistols?"

"Yours." Malcolm replied quickly.

"You're the head of security, it should have been your duty seeing to the weapons instead of trying to confiscate the ration packs!"

"A lot of use they are n...ow!" Malcolm yelped as once again Jacobs dug her elbow sharply into his back, the only pain she could give him at that moment.

Evelyn went into a low whisper. "Someone's coming." The footsteps were loud and clear and getting nearer.

"What do you bet that they'll take me for interrogation?" Malcolm asked.

A smile quickly grew on Evelyn's face at the thought that Malcolm Reed could loose a bet to a Crewman in the most difficult and serious of situations. "How about you be a my steward for a week if they take me?" Came the reply from a surprisingly calm Crewman.

"And you be mine if it's me?" Reed responded. He felt Evelyn nod her head behind him. "You're on." Behind their backs they did their best to shake hands to finalise the bet.

A couple of seconds later and two Romulans came into view. One moved over to the security officers and untied them so they were separated. He dragged Evelyn to her feet, pushing her over to his friend, giving him the chance to check Malcolm was securely tied up again. Once he was satisfied he nodded his head, stood up straight and began pushing Evelyn away.

As they left, Evelyn smiled at her new steward, who responded with a sarcastic 'lucky' face.

"Just my luck" He sighed, knowing that Jacobs was going to humiliate him in front of the rest of the Armoury crew. He began to work on getting the ropes off his wrists and within minutes he was free. He stood up and began to move around the corridors searching for his communicator.

Quietly the British Armoury officer moved along the corridors of the Romulan asteroid base, quickly pressing himself against the wall when he heard footsteps or voices. He soon came to a cave area and found what he was looking for. The two Starfleet EV suits were folded up on a shelf to one side. After making sure no one was lurking in the room he moved in, just as two Romulans rounded a corner a bit further along the corridor.

He looked at his suit, glad that it was all in one piece with no obvious holes, and began to put it on. He knew trying to rescue Evelyn on his won without his trusty weapon would be a very foolish task.

That's when it hit Malcolm about what they had been wearing when they woke up… their uniforms should be back in the locker rooms on _Enterprise_, not here on the asteroid. After close inspection of the uniform in his hands he realised it was not Starfleet regulation. The badge on the left arm was not correct and there were less pockets than there should be. The Romulans had obviously begun to produce their own near perfect, in order to infiltrate _Enterprise_ and other NX-0 ships like her.

This was very bad news indeed.

He left Jacobs' EV suit where it was and began to search for the exit up to the surface of the asteroid. Luckily it wasn't too far from where the EV suits had been stored. He put on his helmet and left the secret base. Once he was out and could see _Enterprise_ following alongside he sighed relief and hit the COMM button on his suit. "Reed to Enterprise."

There was silence for a couple of seconds and then over the COMM he heard the unmistakable voice of his captain. "Malcolm! Where the hell have you been?" Archer sounded pretty desperate, obviously the two of them had been missing for several hours.

"Romulans attacked us. They've got a base in this asteroid sir."

"The Romulans?" Archer repeated, making sure he had heard his friend correctly.

"Yes sir. Jacobs is still in there sir and I don't have any weapons."

Archer paused and thought for a moment. "All right. Stay where you are Malcolm, we'll come to you.

"Aye sir." Malcolm acknowledged and everything went quiet. He looked around him to make sure he wasn't being watched, and from what he could see he was all alone. _'Even company with Jacobs would be nice right now_.' He thought to himself as he waited.

Malcolm waited, and waited for what seemed like hours, but were in fact just a few minutes. He watched as two figures appeared on the horizon, their faces lit up by blue-ish light that was easily recognisable as Starfleet EV suits. Within a couple of minutes they were standing just a couple of feet away from him.

"You all right Malcolm?" Archer asked as they met.

Malcolm nodded. "I'm fine sir."

"Malcolm, you said there was a base here?" The accent was one Reed was pleased to hear… Trip's.

"Yes Commander. The entrance is just over there." Malcolm pointed behind him to a large rock formation about 100 meters away from where they stood out in the darkness.

Trip sighed slightly. "Must be some kind of dampening field in place that's blocking our sensors." He speculated, turning to Archer.

"Let's find Jacobs… and find out what the hell the Romulans are up to this time." Archer said as he headed for the rocks Malcolm had indicated. Trip passed a phase pistol to his good British friend and they followed their captain back towards the Romulan's base and their missing crewman.

When they got inside and past the airlock, red lights were flashing and a siren was blaring.

"Looks like they've discovered you've gone." Archer said as he removed the helmet and placed it on the ground near to the airlock. Malcolm and Trip followed suit and began to walk off down the corridors.


	4. Chapter 4

"I'm going to ask you again!" A Romulan man said as he circled his prisoner, who was lying on the floor. Without warning he bent down and grabbed her collar, pulling to her feet. With a mighty force he slammed her into the wall. Her face scrunched up with the pain that seared through her body. "What was the mission your superiors sent you for?" His voice was filled with anger. "What do they know about us?"

Evelyn gasped for air as she did her best to ignore her injuries and tried to speak. "I've already told you… we were sent to collect Dilithium."

"You lie!" He shouted and rammed her back into the wall again.

Evelyn's face tightened with the pain again. "We had no idea you were here." It was the same answer she had given for the last 20 minutes.

Annoyed, he let go of her and she fell to her knees. Her hands were now tied up in front of her. Her face badly cut and her arm was bleeding from a knife slash.

"But Enterprise will now know that something has happened. We've been missing for a couple of hours… no contact." The Romulans surrounding her looked down at the human. "I'm surprised they haven't already stormed this place in search of us."

The Commander smiled at her. "Your ship would never be able to detect our base through the dampening field."

Three Romulan soldiers marched into the area, weapons strapped to their shoulders. "Commander!" One of them stepped forward and spoke up. "The human is gone."

"Sound the alarms! Find him!" he shouted. The Romulans scattered out upon hearing the commands, leaving Evelyn alone with the commander and one other guard.

Evelyn could tell the commander in front of her was getting angry and so she decided to use this to her advantage. "But they would if they knew what to look for." Evelyn smiled with a smug expression. "Never underestimate humans."

The commander lashed out to hit her round the face, but Evelyn was quick. She dodged the powerful arm heading towards her and as it went past her face she grabbed it, throwing him against the wall and knocking him senseless. She quickly turned and stood up, waiting got the guard to make a move. He was quick to retaliate and drew out a sword from his belt.

He charged, bringing the weapon down to stroke her head, but instead of hitting her skull, the sharp blade made contact with the ropes around her wrists and they severed. With both hands now free she grabbed the surprised Romulan and threw him against the wall. He hit it hard and collapsed to the floor unconscious.

"Romulan idiots." She said before remembering the pain and fell to the floor. She put her hands out in front of her so she didn't hit the floor. She breathed heavily for a few seconds to regain her strength. Her messed up hair hung loosely over her shoulders.

A siren started blaring bringing Evelyn to the realisation of the situation. She had to find Malcolm. Taking a deep breath she staggered to her feet and began to wander the corridors looking for any hope of rescue or escape.

Evelyn had managed to walk along several corridors without bumping into any more Romulans. She was beginning to wonder where they were all hiding. It was making her slightly uncomfortable not knowing the whereabouts of the enemy.

-&-&-&-&-&-

Archer, Trip and Reed were beginning to loose faith. They hadn't seen any sign of Evelyn and had most likely covered the whole base. The scanners weren't of much use to them, some sort of radiolithic compound in the rocks was interfering with the transmissions.

"She's got to be here somewhere." Malcolm said in frustration.

"I'm sure she'll turn up sooner or later." Trip replied, trying to reassure his best friend, however he could tell just by looking at the Englishman's face it wasn't working to well.

They continued walking along searching for her, stopping each time they heard footsteps or voices.

They were hidden round one corner listening to the conversation between two Romulans. They were talking about setting off the self-destruct sequence.

"Lieutenant!" A voice cried out from behind the Starfleet Officers.

The three men turned round upon hearing the voice, relieved to see who it was.

"Evelyn!" Malcolm replied and begun to walk over to her, noticing her limping movements.

The Romulans round the corner heard the cries and quickly appeared, weapons at the ready. Seeing the four humans they quickly attacked, firing their weapons at the intruders.

Trip and Archer quickly took them out with just a few shots and everything went silent.

Malcolm rushed to the young crewman as she collapsed into his arms, pulling Malcolm down to the floor with her. She was no longer able to stand, blood gushing out from a wound in her side. "Evelyn?"

"You should go on without me." She said, finding it hard to talk. The wound caused by the Romulan's hail of fire was putting her in a lot of pain.

Malcolm shook his head. "I'm not going to leave you behind. You hear me?"

"I'm not gonna make it back to Enterprise. Leave me here." She took a deep breath and winced.

Trip moved forward and bent down the other side of her. "Phlox can sort you out. You'll be fine… you can get back to fighting Malcolm in no time at all." Trip began to do his best to stop the bleeding, but no matter what he did, the blood just kept coming.

"I'm sorry Lieutenant, but there won't be any more fights between us." Evelyn's breathing quickly slowed down. Her eyes gently closed and her body went limp. Her breathing had now stopped altogether.

"Evelyn? Malcolm was confused. She had been so full of life earlier, and their bet! Now she was gone. Tears were beginning to fill his eyes.

"Come on Malcolm. Let's go." Archer called calmly from down the corridor. He was surprised to see Malcolm looking so upset after all the arguments he had had with Evelyn.

Malcolm took one last look at Evelyn, and gently laid her on the floor.

"We can give her a proper funeral." Trip said, puzzled by Malcolm's actions.

Malcolm shook his head. "No… this is what she would want." He stood up and together they walked over to Archer and headed for the exit.

Archer looked with worry at Trip. He had no idea that anything romantic had been going on between Malcolm and Evelyn. The arguments, the fights, the injuries… they had all suggested that the two officers hated each others guts, but from the couple of tears falling down Reed's face, it was obvious that was no longer true.


	5. Chapter 5

Once the men had left, Evelyn opened her eyes. Carefully and painfully she stood up, clutching her wounded side. "Men." She said as she shook her head. She moved off down the corridor and turned the opposite direction from her companions. She soon came to the room she was looking for. A few computers were lined up on large platforms. She moved to the closest one and pulled off the access panel.

Putting her hand inside she pulled out a flat, octagonal shaped object. It was a very bright green transparent item. Reaching in again she pulled out more of them. When she could carry no more she staggered for the exit where she hoped her EV suit was still waiting for her.

She came to the storage area not far from the air lock and discovered that Captain Archer had taken her suit with them. Sighing heavily she grabbed the nearest Romulan EV suit and struggled to put it on over the uniform.

Looking up at the stars, Evelyn could see _Enterprise_ and then the two shuttlepods flew over the surface of the asteroid and headed to the ship.

"Jacobs to Enterprise. One to beam up, and have Doctor Phlox ready." She said into the EV suit's communicator. Within a few seconds the transporter was activated and Evelyn was no longer standing on the cold, dark asteroid.

-&-&-&-&-&-

The arms lowered and magnetised onto the shuttlepods, bringing then both safely into the launch bay. Archer got out of one pod via the hatch, meeting Trip and Reed coming out of the other pod the same way.

To the left of them the door opened and in walked T'Pol in her red uniform. "I trust your mission was successful?"

"Not exactly T'Pol." Archer replied turning to look at Malcolm. T'Pol looked at his eyes and it looked as though he had been crying.

T'Pol took a breath before giving her report. "Ensign Sato is currently translating the data modules from the base to find out what the Romulans were doing there."

"Data modules?" Trip asked. "What data modules?" The situation was slightly confusing.

"What are you talking T'Pol?"

T'Pol looked at Archer, Malcolm and Trip, thinking they should know what she was talking about. "The data modules that Crewman Jacobs retrieved and brought back with her."

"Wait a minute!" Malcolm quickly interrupted. "Evelyn's dead! She got shot, she died in my arms!"

"Doctor Phlox is treating her in sickbay as we speak." T'Pol replied.

Without another word being said Malcolm bolted for the door. Trip quickly followed.

-&-&-&-&-&-

The doors to sickbay opened and Malcolm stopped dead in his tracks. He couldn't believe his eyes. The last time Malcolm had seen her she was dead, lying on the corridor, dead. But now Evelyn was sitting on a bio bed in her skivvies, with Phlox treating her wound. She looked up upon hearing the doors open and smiled at seeing Malcolm, mouth wide open.

"What's the matter Lieutenant?" She asked smiling, even though she needed no answer. Malcolm couldn't even give one away. "You really thought that you could get rid of me that easily?" Trip was finding it hard not to laugh.

"B… bu…" Malcolm stuttered, taking a couple of steps closer to the crewman.

"You were dead." Trip said for his friend.

Evelyn shook her head with a smile. "No… I pretended."

Malcolm was confused. "You weren't breathing!"

Evelyn smiled even more at how dumb they were both being. "Ever heard of holding your breath?" Trip then smiled, laughing slightly at what had happened.

"But why?" Malcolm asked in confusion, and in concern. He had been so worried about her. He looked deeply into her eyes waiting for an answer. Evelyn could tell how Malcolm felt about her.

She took a deep breath and watched as Archer walked in followed by T'Pol. She winced in pain as Phlox tightened the bandage a bit too much. "Phlox! That's too tight!"

"Sorry." He replied and gently loosed it and continued.

"Well?" Malcolm asked waiting for the answer to explain why she had gotten him so upset.

"Because I know in the condition I was in you would never have allowed me to and get the data modules."

It was T'Pol's turn to speak. "And they have proved very useful."

Evelyn smiled, but only very slightly. She knew she was going to be reprimanded or something similar for her actions on the asteroid.

"But that doesn't excuse you for what you did! Pretending to be dead! What if you had been too slow and Enterprise had left?" Archer shouted.

"But I wasn't… and I'm here now."

"A Starfleet officer would _never_ have acted like you did, nor risk their lives in the hands of the Romulans." Archer moved forward, standing just a couple of feet away from Evelyn. He turned away and then looked back at her. "I'm not sure what I should do with you." He continued, pacing back and forth with Evelyn's eyes following him. "Throw you in the brig or…" he paused and looked at Evelyn. He lowered his voice to a more normal tone, maybe just a little quieter than normal. "Or dismiss you from Starfleet." He turned away again and walked behind her so that no one could see what his face looked like. Having to dismiss someone from Starfleet was not the easiest thing for a captain to do to one of his crew, but he was so close to having to do it to Evelyn.

Evelyn's face was that of slight shock of hearing being dismissed from Starfleet. She had a feeling her punishment would be severe but not that severe. Malcolm and Trip were too surprised to hear their captain suggesting such things.

"Perhaps…" Archer turned and faced the speaker, who was T'Pol, standing near the door with a data PADD. She had just been talking to Hoshi and had the translation of the data modules. "… it would help your decision if you knew what the Romulans were doing."

"Go on." Archer's voice was in monotone. Evelyn had never seen his so disappointed before.

"According to the sensor readings from one module it appears to have been some sort of tracking station."

"Tracking what?" Trip asked.

"Vessels. Human, Vulcan, Tellerite, Andorian, Klingon and Rigellian. All ships in the region. 2 other modules contained recordings of communications between the vessels and planets."

"They've been monitoring everyone." Malcolm concluded.

"Indeed." T'Pol replied as she moved over and handed the PADD to Archer.

He looked up from the PADD and over to Evelyn who was sitting quietly on the bio bed. He sighed and looked at the PADD again. "Perhaps we can skip the court martial…" he looked at Evelyn again. "This time."

"Thank you sir." Evelyn replied as she watched Archer leave, T'Pol following him, her hands neatly clasped behind her back. She sighed heavily. She was had just escaped being kicked out of Starfleet she had never been so relieved. She then looked at Malcolm and slightly smiled at him remembering what they had said back on the asteroid. ""t looks like i have myself one steward, Lieutenant."

Trip was now puzzled. "Steward?" he said looking between Jacobs and Reed.

Malcolm cleared his throat. "Just a little joke Commander."

Trip, however, didn't believe him. He could tell by the way the two of them were looking at each other. Smiling.

Malcolm moved over to Evelyn. "And you really think after what you just did you deserve a steward."

"We made a bet… sir." She smiled at him. "Do you think you can get me a sandwich? I'm a little peckish." Malcolm turned to leave when Evelyn's voice interrupted him. He didn't look back round at her but stayed facing the door. "A cheese sandwich… with a glass of orange juice, none of the bits in though."

Trip smiled as he watched Malcolm's face turn redder and angrier. He knew the arguing was never going to stop between Lieutenant and Crewman.

"You were just lucky crewman." Malcolm said as he headed for the door. His voice then dropped to a very low whisper. "I'll get my own back on you." And with that he was gone.

Trip moved over to Evelyn. "You know… Deep down he actually loves you."

"Yes sir… I know that now." Evelyn replied, brushing a hand through her hair.

"How long have you know?"

"Since I faked my death." Trip looked at her in slight surprise. "I guess I really wanted to know, couldn't think of any other way cause I know if I just asked him he would deny it immediately, especially after all the arguments we've had."

"Yeah." Trip laughed and patted her shoulder. "I don't think I realise how lucky I am to not have person like you in my engineering team."

"I think you're very lucky." Evelyn said, knowing that if there were two people like her on _Enterprise_, life on the ship would be a nightmare.


End file.
